Will Marijuana Follow In The Steps Of Big Tobacco?

The New York Times this week carried its first-ever full-page ad for a marijuana company. It’s a Seattle-based firm called Leafly, which is like “Yelp” for pot, giving reviews of different strains of cannabis and places where you can buy it.

The ad is renewing the debate over how marijuana advertising should be regulated, as medical and recreational marijuana becomes legal in more states. Some physicians and public health leaders are concerned that unless rules are put in place soon, marijuana ads could follow the same path as big tobacco.

From Here & Now contributing station WBUR, Martha Bebinger reports that tobacco addition increased after “innovations” that made it easier to inhale, more addictive and less expensive.